Video & multimedia tutorials

Video & multimedia

Five tips to create powerful infographics
Producer: John Haydon
January 2013

Tools & tips: People support your organization for one reason: They view your organization as the agent of change they seek. So when you tell the story of your cause, you need to show how supporters ultimately create the outcomes. Here are 5 tips on how nonprofits can use infographics to demonstrate supporters’ impact.

Tools & tips: Good photos are powerful. A good image captures interest, creates connection and provokes a reaction, which can then inspire action. All organizations need quality images that inspire people to act — to share, to like, to comment, to give. So how do you edit photos when you’re not a designer and don’t have access to pricey programs like Adobe Photoshop or Aperture from Apple, and when you only occasionally need to edit images online? Here are 11 good online photo-editing tools that we’ve found for editing images online.

Tutorial: It’s now easier than ever to conduct video interviews or conversations over Skype or Google Hangout. If you want to interview a thought leader in your sector, or if you want to have your executive director or CEO sit down for an Internet interview, take the right steps to make it look good. Here are five key areas to focus on to help you create great Web videos.

Tutorial: If you have little to no video editing experience or don’t have access to editing software, YouTube’s Video Editor is a perfect solution. This feature lets you edit your YouTube video from within the browser and gives you the options to combine video clips, add music, shorten clips and add transitions. Here are seven steps to help you edit your organization’s videos.

Tutorial: Today, software makes editing digital footage faster, easier and much more affordable than in the old days — and puts it within reach of anyone with a personal computer. Here are some great tools that offer different approaches to editing, most of them easy enough for any of us to use.

What to consider when investing in video
Guest post by Stacy Laiderman, See3 Communications
September 2012

Tutorial: Organizations are using video as their primary vehicle for communicating their issues and telling the stories of their cause while the technology becomes easier for laymen to use. But organizations rarely have the budgets to hire pros to create every piece of video content. Here are things to consider when investing in video.

Tutorial: Images are one of the best ways to tell your story, simply because they convey emotional and unconscious elements of your story that words often cannot. Here are seven tools you should check out for your image editing needs.

Use smartphones to capture events for your cause
Producer: Lauren Major
August 2012

Tutorial: Dan Chung, staff photographer for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, documented the 2012 London Olympic events armed only with an iPhone 4S that allowed him to post photos live to his photoblog, so fans could stay up to date by the minute. Here’s how you can turn your smartphone into a high-end camera.

Tutorial: Video is a powerful tool in the nonprofit world, as it gives donors, staff and volunteers an opportunity to see and feel first hand the impact of their support. Here are four key steps all video producers should take when shooting interviews.

How to add a subscribe button to a YouTube video
Producer: John Haydon
May 2012

Tutorial: If your nonprofit or social enterprise has a YouTube channel, and you have the occasion to edit videos for your organization, you’ll want to learn how to let users subscribe to your new videos.

Tutorial: Code for America, a nonprofit that uses technology to transform local governments, boasts a creative, compelling promotional video that not only clearly describes its message but also engages its viewers to get involved. In just five simple steps, any nonprofit can follow its example.

Online advocacy video best practices
Producer: Lauren Major
April 2012

Tutorial: Every person, cause and business has a story to tell, and a few key video techniques can help bring these stories to life. Here are a few ways to achieve effective storytelling with video, allowing you to spread awareness and advocate for a cause that deserves greater visibility.

Tutorial: At the Nonprofit Technology Conference, expert advice on best practices in telling your nonprofit’s story. Michael Hoffman and Danny Alpert of See3 Communications offered these tips on how to make your visual story work.

How charity: water changes lives through multimedia
Producer: Lauren Major
January 2012

Tutorial: With more than 1.3 million Twitter followers, 210,000 Facebook likes, and an extremely accessible blog called the charity: water log, the organization charity: water has successfully tapped the social media well. charity: water is a nonprofit leader in social media and it embodies what it means for an organization to embrace all things multimedia. This is part three of our series on how nonprofits can create engaging multimedia stories that motivate supporters to take a desired action.

Should nonprofits use video for their annual reports?
Producer: Debra Askanase
January 2012

Tutorial: The annual report is one of those pieces of communication and collateral that executive directors and development directors dread putting together because it is such a costly endeavor with relatively little return and a short shelf life. Several nonprofit organizations have transformed the paper annual report into a video report and have reinvigorated it in the process. Video is a natural medium for storytelling, and that’s what the annual report should be.

How to get started with live streaming technology
Guest post by Christina Johns
Director of New Media, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
January 2012

Tutorial: Live streaming is an area of new media getting a lot of attention. Live streaming can have a positive impact on your community when done right and integrated with existing social media communities or websites, but there are some important questions to ask before diving in. Here is some advice on the approaches to live streaming for your nonprofit and the most popular tools to use.

Tutorial: In 2007, YouTube stars John and Hank Green, known online as the VlogBrothers, asked everyone on YouTube to upload videos for their favorite causes and charities on Dec. 17. This YouTube community-driven movement became known as Project for Awesome — so many people participated that the videos actually took over the YouTube home page in a “flurry of awesomeness.” P4A is a shining example of how YouTube can help nonprofits of all shapes and sizes raise awareness, funds and friends.

Tutorial: If you have little to no video editing experience or don’t have access to editing software, the YouTube Video Editor is a perfect solution in creating a compelling and visually appealing video. Here are nine steps to editing with YouTube Video Editor.

How to effectively use calls to action in nonprofit videos
Producer: Lauren Major
November 2011

Tutorial: While the audience for online video continues to grow, the advances in Web video technology are changing at a dizzying pace, making it hard for nonprofits to keep up. There are several good online video platforms and third-party apps available to convert views into actions. YouTube’s call-to-action video overlay, third-party video apps and customized video domains or microsites offer great options for boosting the return on investment of your nonprofit’s video program.

Tutorial: With the power of online video, social media and crowd-funding at an all-time high, nonprofits need a better understanding of how to create compelling multimedia stories that inspire a call to action. This is the first of a three-part series on how nonprofits can create powerful multimedia stories.

Techniques to add dazzle to your advocacy video
Producer: Lauren Major
September 2011

Tutorial: Multimedia storytelling can be an incredibly powerful tool for your organization to attract funders, motivate volunteers and demonstrate the power of your message. For nonprofits and other organizations looking to capture their stories through powerful imagery, here are some simple tips for creating professional-looking video.

How to make cause marketing video that doesn’t suck
Guest post by Steve Stockman
Writer/director/producer, Custom Productions, Inc.
September 2011

Tutorial: Videos are made out of passion you have for your cause — the people you are helping, the changes that need to be made, the story that has to be told. They’re a powerful cause marketing tool. But no matter how good your cause is, one truth stands between you and successful communication: Nobody watches bad video. Here are 10 things you need to know to make video that doesn’t suck.

Tutorial: The following are tips from people who regularly make videos for social good, including Chris Yates of Huddle Productions, Cara Jones of Storytellers for Good, Tritia Pocci, who has created strategy for marketing media content, and Danielle Bernstein of Clear Films.

Tutorial: Stories help us interact with our world and make sense of it. They link us together and shape our view of the world. Nonprofits, however, often miss the stories that surround them; the stories that can help them raise more funding, expand awareness of their cause and reach their goals. Here are strategies for identifying stories that exemplify your organization’s mission

Tutorial: Events benefit from media coverage. And seeing a story about your hard efforts or seeing photos of your fundraising event receiving coverage in social media and traditional media is satisfying and exciting. Here are my top five dos and don’ts to creating great relationships with editors.

How to make your nonprofit video more social
Guest post by Melissa Nelson
Media Production and Outreach Manager, Blackbaud
October 2010

Tutorial: Video is a great way to engage constituents in your mission. It adds a visual element to what might be an otherwise text heavy email, blog or website. Supporters react to hearing and seeing real people talking about issues or an organization’s mission coming to life with visual examples.

Tutorial: Digital storytelling is a craft that uses the tools of digital technology to tell stories about our lives. Done properly, storytelling can be a powerful, evocative way of communicating themes and stories, often touching us in deeper ways than one-dimensional videos that rarely probe beneath the surface of people’s lives. Nonprofits, especially, can use this technique to convey powerful, emotion-filled messages — by letting the people you’re helping tell their own stories.

8 tips to help you shoot video like a pro
Producer: Guest post by Rick Broida
July 2010

Tutorial: There’s more to videography than just taking the camcorder out of the box and pressing Record. As with photography, good videography requires a bit of know-how.

Here is list of ways you can improve your movies, or make your video creations look a lot better.

Tutorial: Planning to create a video or digital story for your organization? Make sure you plan out your goals and gather the right equipment before hitting the record button. Here are steps to follow creating your video or digital story.

How to embed interactive links in your YouTube videos
Producer: John Haydon
December 2009

Tutorial: With annotated links, you can edit your YouTube videos and add text links that will link to other videos on YouTube, Playlists on YouTube, YouTube Channels, Searches on YouTube, Groups on YouTube and more.

How to record & edit a 2-minute audio interview
Guest post by Adam Hyde and Adam Willets
May 2010

Tutorial: This guide shows you how to record and edit a two-minute interview with just one microphone and a laptop.

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